There will always be some abuse in any system involving large amounts of money. While there is room for improvement in today's safety net, my bigger concern is with the macro level taxation problem. Simply the federal government (and a few states) are consistently spending more than they have taken in.

We have only to look at a consumer who is over their head in credit card debt to know that continuing to spend and increasing the debt balance while only paying the interest will catch up with you at some point. Currently 8.5% of all money spent buy the federal government is going to pay the interest on the debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fy2009spendingbycategory2.... Unlike a consumer it's unlikely that Japan and China (the two biggest holders of US dept at about 20% each) would forgive any portion of that debt.

So at a macro level changes need to be made. While a healthy debate about federal spending could be had, I was suggesting an approach from the income side. A taxing system where only 53% of households are contributing would be a place to start. I'm proud to pay my taxes, but become frustrated when they seem out of balance with others while the country's financial situation continues to deteriorate. The taxation system should not be the mechanism for social engineering. A solution would be to require all people to pay their share of taxes needed to fund all programs. Use the other programs to provide the services.

My apologies if this is slightly off topic for the board on tax strategies, but felt is might be appropriate to discuss the overhaul of the tax system as one strategy. An alternative, micro level strategy, is to throw in the towel, take a lower paying, lower stress job such that you can become one of the 47% of households that don't owe Uncle Sam income tax.